Buried mines are one of the most widely used and lethal weapons of war. Mines made of metal are easily detected and cleared, but today, many are made of plastic. As plastic mines do not register on a mine detector, the mines can go on killing and maiming people and animals long after hostilities cease.
Unfortunately, wars are still being waged around the world, and wars probably will be waged for many years to come. Of the many victims of wars, possibly the most senseless are the non-combatants, many of them children, who are killed long after the wars are over and almost forgotten. Most of the post-war victims result from explosions of anti-personnel mines, which were never found because they were made of nonmetallic materials--intentionally so that they could not be located by mine detectors.
Most land mines used during World War II were encased in metal. They were cleared within a year or so of the end of the war. Nonmetallic mines made of wood or canvas disintegrated after a few years in the ground, and detonators became inactive. Unfortunately, current mine casings are often made of plastic, which cannot be located by mine detectors. As the plastic mines are waterproof, they remain active and lethal for many years.
This is a problem for which many people in many countries are trying to find a solution. Current work has concentrated on detecting thermal differences between soil which has been disturbed and surrounding earth. That solution, if perfected, would have high utility, because it would allow clearance of paths through mine fields shortly after the mines have been laid. Unfortunately, as time goes by, temperature differences vanish, and thermal detectors would no longer function. Although paths may have been cleared to mined areas using the thermal detectors, the main field is left intact.
While it is highly desirable to locate underground plastic mines and to excavate and deactivate the mines, the present state of the art does not meet the object. Consequently, it is necessary to explode the mines by bombarding expected mine fields with explosives or projectiles which detonate the mines or by driving mechanical snakes across mine fields or by advancing mechanical beaters using heavily armored vehicles or by driving flocks of animals over mine fields in the hope of sacrificing animals to save human lives.
The problem remains unsolved at this time. Focus on the problem and attempts at solution are particularly heightened at this time by mine fields which remain in the Falklands, Afghanistan and Iraq and, in fact, any place where wars have passed by.